New Battery Factory for Tesla
Tesla Motors is currently in negotiations with Panasonic to build a new battery-production plant in the USA. Since the batteries represent a good chunk of the Model S price, the investment would certainly be profitable in the long run.
The plant would produce lithium-ion batteries –from refining the raw material to the final assembly- used not only by Tesla, but also installed in some Toyota models, since the Japanese automaker (as well as Panasonic) owns parts of Tesla Motors. If the factory produces more batteries, they could be sold to other manufacturers.
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Tesla needs a new provider for batteries since the Model X will launch later this year, and they are also working on a new car to be released around 2017 that would cost around $35000.
Panasonic is offering Japanese suppliers a chance to be part of the project, which should generate investments of nearly one billion dollars.
